Page 79 of House of Cards
“Forty-six?”
Calum shrugged. “The church wanted to keep theirs. The Sunday school kids have repurposed a bunch of aviaries for them. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
“Course it is. Less we have here the better.”
“You don’t mean that.”
Brix snorted. “Not enough that an extra four would’ve killed us. You do realise we’re going to be drowning in chicken shit now though, don’t you? That we’ll be out here shovelling it in all weathers?”
Calum had kind of figured. “I spoke to the garden centre today. They said they’ll help us make our own compost to sell if we keep the ground healthy.”
Brix nodded slowly. “I thought about doing that a few years ago, but I never got round to it. What would I do without you, eh?”
“Um . . . shovel less shit?”
“Come with me.” Brix grabbed Calum’s hand and dragged him to the shed. “Jump up here.”
“Where?”
Brix jumped like a cat onto the wall and then onto the shed roof. “Up here, knobber. Come on.”
Easier said than done. Calum clambered awkwardly onto the roof. “What’s up here?”
“The sea.”
“Eh?”
“Look.” Brix grasped Calum’s shoulders and gently turned him around, revealing the sparkling Atlantic Ocean in the distance. “It’s never far in Porthkennack.”
“Good job too, eh?”
“I’ll say.”
Brix smiled. Calum returned it, and for perhaps the first time, he truly understood what it meant to be happy. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For bringing me here,” Calum said. “I love Porthkennack. I know I’m not native, but it feels like home.”
Brix turned his gaze to the horizon. “There’s a home by the sea for any emmet who’s got the heart for it. My nan taught me that.”
“Did she? What do you think she’d say about my heart, eh?”
“That it was made for mine.”
“That’s so fucking corny.”
Brix’s smile morphed into a wicked grin. “Cornish, mate, not corny.”
“Dick.”
“Aye, but you love me, and I don’t need nothing else.”
